That Smile
by ShipMistress
Summary: One-shot, taking place about three years before the events of HTTYD1. My take on how Astrid thinks about Hiccup before he becomes the 'Great Dragonmaster'. Also, this is the answer to IpperDragon's request in 'How to gather your courage', so it's linked to that one as well.


**A/N: As requested by** **IpperDragon** **, here's the story about Hiccup delivering Astrid's ax. ;)**

 **And thanks for that, I had a lot of fun writing this! It also turned out to be some kind of prologue for 'Astrid's Diary' in a way... Anyway, here, we're dealing with a 12 years old Astrid and I imagine she became a bit more bitter during the years between this and HTTYD1. You might want to keep that in mind...**

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 **That Smile**

Astrid stared down at her hand. Her bandaged hand! _Just a cut_ , she reminded herself. _It is just a cut, nothing serious_. But it could have ended worse. So easily the hand could be broken, useless for weeks or even worse still, damaged beyond repair. And the same could go for her ax, for that matter. It, too, could be broken beyond repair, she still didn't know whether Gobber would be able to fix it.

It's only fun when you get a scar out of it.

Yeah… right…

She snorted and began to unwrap her hand. It was time to apply the ointment to actually prevent a scar from showing and Gothi should be here any minute now to inspect the wound as well. The cut didn't look too bad, in her opinion at least. Not swollen or throbbing red and hot. A relieved sigh escaped her and she looked around in embarrassment, surprised by that herself. Emotions made one weak and she couldn't effort to show, to _have_ any of those, ever. But, of course, she was alone in her parent's house. Nobody had witnessed that slight lapse.

But then, what did it matter? _Everyone_ had witnessed the other, far bigger lapse a week ago. And even though it hadn't been her fault, really, she still was ashamed of that.

There had been another dragon raid, as usual, and although she and the rest of the gang were training weapons and fighting for years, she was still only allowed to take care of the fires.

That was so unfair. She wanted to fight!

And she had… Just like so many times before, she'd grabbed her ax instead of a water bucket and headed out, looking for a dragon that was foolish enough to get near Astrid Hofferson! She'd already chased away a few Terrible Terrors before it had happened. She'd seen Hiccup running in her direction, another one of his cursed gadgets in his arms and for just a moment she'd thought about stopping him and sending him back to the forge where he was supposed to be. But she hadn't. He, too, only wanted to fight even though he wasn't allowed to. She caught his eyes while they were running toward each other and they both nodded, silently agreeing to pretend not to have seen each other.

It was all that was left of their former friendship, these silent agreements now and then.

Only two years ago, things between them had been different. They'd been friends, real and honest and true friends. But then they'd turned 10 winters old, old enough to start their official training in weapons and fighting and everyone had attended to that. Snotlout and Fishlegs and Tuffnut and even Ruffnut, although as a girl she wasn't bound to do so. But just like Astrid herself, Ruffnut had learned how to fight, just like everyone else. Everyone but Hiccup. Because he was too scrawny and his father hadn't allowed it…

Before that, Hiccup had been a part of their gang and amongst them all, he'd been by far her closest friend but after that, everything had changed. He'd begun to work in Gobber's forge then and it had changed him. He'd become quiet and reclusive, had begun to avoid them, had avoided _her_ even though she still caught him throwing her these strange glances now and then. It was then when Snotlout and the rest had started to treat him differently as well, almost like an outcast, though why Astrid hadn't ever been able to understand. Not everyone needed to be a warrior. There were other jobs to do as well. They also needed fishermen and craftsmen of all kind and being a blacksmith surely wasn't the worst one could do these days.

Although… Astrid had to admit… She hated that he'd started working there! Because ever since he'd done so, they weren't friends anymore, not like they'd been before. It had started gradually, he'd acted odder and odder from week to week, had been evasive whenever she tried to talk to him up to that point where she'd caught him sneaking out of the forge through the back door just to avoid meeting her.

It had hurt… And did so still, even though she was used to it by now and hardly ever acknowledged that. Sometimes, she allowed herself to think about him though, about how she missed their friendship, his kind eyes, his always ready smile and his dry comments. But they were all gone now and all that was left were their occasional silent agreements on the battlefield.

But those at least worked well. Even on that day one week ago, it would have worked well, they would have run past each other without interfering with each other's plans. If only Snotlout hadn't been there…

Oh, sure, he'd had a right to be there at the well, filling his water bucket. He'd had a right to turn and run toward the burning house across the town square. It hadn't been his fault he'd collided with both of them just when they'd been about to pass each other. He wasn't to blame for her ax to fall to the ground and splinter and he wasn't to blame for Hiccup's contraption to land on her hand, either. But she wanted to blame him! Nothing of this would have happened if only Snotlout hadn't been there! Not her broken ax, not her injured hand and not the telling-off she and Hiccup had gotten thereafter for disobeying direct orders.

And yet she knew she would do it again and she suspected so would Hiccup.

Astrid allowed herself a small smile at this thought. Maybe they weren't friends anymore but they still were the same in a way. And it made her angry on his behalf when she thought about how rude and mean everyone treated him lately. He just tried to help. In his own, strange, unvikinglike way and admittedly he yet had to come up with anything useful but at least he _tried_! He wasn't allowed to even practice fighting and yet he tried…

She threw another glance at her hand and another small smile tugged at her lips. If she would keep a scar from this, at least it would be a reminder of her former best friend in a way. And of her luck as well. This invention of his could have smashed her hand, she knew that very well. She'd tried to lift it but it had been far heavier than she'd thought it would be. To think, Hiccup had carried it that easily while running and dodging… There really was more to him, more than anyone could see. Maybe someday people would recognize him as the strong, brave, intelligent and kind person she knew was in there somewhere. And maybe, someday one of his inventions would actually work…

A knock tore her out of her reverie then and she made an effort to pull herself together again. No need for Gothi to notice the emotional turmoil she was in if one wanted to call it that. She wanted to become the best warrior Berk had ever seen so she would need to leave these emotions for other girls. She would need to be strong, stronger than any man and she would not let herself get distracted from her goal!

She stood up, cradling her injured hand in her other one and walked over to open the door for the tribe's elder. The sooner she got this over with the better. She wanted to redress that wound as soon as possible and return to her chores, do some endurance training or whatever, do _something_ to keep her thoughts from returning to a certain pair of green eyes. But she had no luck today…

"Uhm… Astrid, hey! Hi, Astrid… hey… Astrid…" Hiccup stammered, looking everywhere but in her direction. "I-I… Just… wanted to-to bring your ax back. I… was heading here anyway… had.. stuff to do, you know… over there, and… and…," he broke off and Astrid averted her eyes as well, trying to hide the blush that was about to rise in her cheeks. Normally, she was in better control of herself but seeing him now, unexpectedly, after she'd just thought about him…

"Anyway…" he continued a few moments later. "I… just wanted to bring your ax. I fixed… uhm… It's mended and sharpened as well, so you… erm… can use it again, when…," he gulped. "When your hand's better, I mean… I'm… so sorry for that, really! I'm sorry!" At that, she looked up at him after all and found him looking at her as well, pleadingly. So he was blaming himself for her injured hand? Ah, but of course, he would. He was that caring and kind person who would always find a way to take the blame, even though it wasn't his responsibility or fault.

Hesitantly, she took her beloved ax out of his hands, careful not to touch him. "Thank you, Hiccup!" She said wholeheartedly and gave him the brightest smile she could come up with. "Thank you for everything!"

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 **Thanks for reading! ;)  
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 ** **And even though the story isn't new, I still read and appreciate every comment! ;)****


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